Best Place to get Steamed Blue Crabs

I grew up around the Chesapeake Bay but I live in Denver now. I miss having blue crab under my nails and cut's on my fingers. My wife and I are going to NO and I want to know where to get steamed crabs.

First things first: in South LA, we boil crabs in highly seasoned water, we don't steam them. You can get your fill of boiled crabs at Deanie's in Bucktown, as takeout from Capt Sids down the street from Deanie's, at Jaeger's new spot on Clearview Pkwy (is it open yet?), at the Galley on Metairie Rd, Harbor Seafood or Kenner Seafood in Kenner....none of these spots are remotely close to downtown or the Quarter. I usually eat crabs on the back porch, so I can't help you with downtown crab spots, sorry! I don't know of any resto in town offering steamed crabs.

...I ran into the same problem living out in California... I miss my blue crabs, but a friend of mine and I discovered that we could order them pretty easily and have them shipped from The Crab Place (http://crabplace.com/). We've done it twice, and both times we ordered them pre-steamed and we were pleasantly surprised with the entire experience. The premium size was perfect, we had a great time recreating the East Coast with butcher block paper, pitchers of beer, and plenty of Old Bay. Sadly, we haven't found any silver queen corn places that will ship, and the hush puppies we used to get just aren't the same if you mail it! ;0)

Terrible news to report. None of the farmers seem to be growing Silver Queen any longer so if anybody does offer to ship you some, watch out. The late Johnny Apple of the NY Times did a story about it http://www.e-cookbooks.net/articles/s...

Yeah, you can still get the seed and it's great for home gardens but as Apple found out, it's not grown for sale any longer. The sugars in Silver Queen start to turn to starch immediately after it's picked which means it keeps poorly so farmers have turned to new cultivars which stay sweet longer. You'll still see some corn marked "Silver Queen" on roadside stands but Buyer Beware! The Apple article is a good read. I really miss him

On the subject of fresh corn - I have been making Louisiana corn maque choux for many years. I haven't ever found a maque chou that was good in any restaurant and I have sampled all across the state, but I'm open to suggestions. My mother and grandparents knew that the trick to good macque choux is the corn. You have to get corn that's picked at a certain stage, then get it delivered immediately (that was when if you knew a farmer, you could order some of his produce, we could also get fresh hens, fresh guineas, etc etc) direct from the corn row, shuck it and cook it without delay. When the bags arrived we would all sit out on the back stoop and shuck as fast as possible. Shucking does not stop the sugars from going to starch. Removing the kernels from the cob doesn't stop the process either. Only cooking will halt it. So my mother would cook and can immediately. I don't can. Just put it in freezer jars and into the freezer. I mention all this b/c it emphasizes the point about the demise of Silver Queen. One final word - if you see corn in your market with fresh looking tassels that are not withered, turn back a few of the outer hulls. If the kernels are small and pearly, get it home fast and cook. You can use it all year in bisques and other recipes. When I order shrimp and corn bisque and the corn tastes like the canned stuff - I know the chef doesn't know corn.

The only way to efficiently bring fresh corn from field to market is to pick it and hydro cool it.The hydro cooler stops the process of the sugars' conversion to starch.The corn is submitted to icy blasts of water in a cooling chamber.When you purchase corn make sure it feels cool to the touch.I grew up eating Silver Queen and it was my favorite but it's flavor profile has long since been surpassed through plant engineering.The problem withsome of the modern corn varietals is they don't taste corn-y enough....it's all sugar and no intrinsic corn flavor.Hopefully Johnny Apple is looking down on us all with a giant ear of fresh sweet corn in one hand and a full stick of good butter in the other.